The increased popularity of fast food establishments, coupled with the popularity for consumption of food on-the-go has led to the need for more convenient food packaging.
Billions of disposable beverage containers are used every year. Often those containers are part of a larger meal, and current technology dictates placing a lid on the beverage container, and packing the food in a separate and detached container. This may be satisfactory for a consumer seated at a table. However, when the consumer must eat on-the-go, use of the current technology is problematic. Consider, for example, a consumer that is drinking the beverage and would like to access a breakfast sandwich. The consumer must set aside a beverage, and then use one hand to hold the bag and the other hand to access the sandwich, then set aside the bag and use both hands to open the sandwich packaging. As shown in this example, current technology does not allow for convenient on-the-go eating.
To address some of these problems, yogurt manufacturers have placed a small food container on the lid of a yogurt cup. The food container (often holding nuts or granola) must be removed from the yogurt cup and then flipped over and opened, then the contents are poured into the yogurt cup. It is therefore not possible to simultaneously access the contents of the yogurt cup and the contents of the food container; rather the food container must be completely disengaged from the cup to access either contents of the yogurt cup or the contents of the food container. The food container that attaches to the yogurt cup in an upside-down position has a limited food-volume capacity because its walls taper as they proceed upward toward the bottom of the upside down container. Without this tapering, the yogurt cup/food container complex would become top-heavy and cumbersome.
What is therefore needed is a lid that overcomes these shortcomings, and fosters convenient on-the-go eating.